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Understanding The Pulping Process

Paper products are made by taking the cellulose fibers from softwood and hardwood trees and converting them into paper pulp. You can use both virgin paper materials or recycled paper and dissolve it into a pulp that is converted into various forms using paper converting equipment.

This March, there will be a tissue industry expo at Miami, USA, where many prominent tissue industry players are expected to attend. There will also be pulp fiber processing suppliers, and if you are concerned about the future of the paper industry, you should definitely attend. You can view more on their website here.

Debarking process
The wood or the waste material is defragmented into various elements and the fibers are then separated.

Chipping and pulping
In the process of making this pulp, several individual fibers are created.

Bleaching and cleaning
These are then washed and screened out to remove any bundles and the dried and drained of all the water.This can then be used directly or bleached to remove all colour, depending on the purpose for which it is going to be used.

Drying and washing
This paper pulp is then fed directly to a paper machine in an integrated paper mill. In other cases, the pulp is dried and rolled into bales to be used as raw material for paper mills globally.

Paper pulp is then graded based on the manufacturing process, the tree species that was used in the process and whether it was bleached or not.Even recycled paper is graded in a similar manner.

Creating pulp from waste material

To create paper pulp from recycled paper gives it an entirely new component and most of the recycled paper is used to create tissues, newspapers and paperboards. Most of these recycled paper products are composed of recycled fibers which are treated and bleached to create a new kind of pulp.

Collecting the paper

The waste paper must first be collected and sorted into various categories. These can be done either at special sorting stations or at the paper mill itself.

Sorting the paper

These loose bales of paper are then sent to the conveyor belts to create the pulp.

Deinking

In case of printed paper like newspaper, the recycled waste must first be deinked and then pulped.There are two methods for doing this: Washing and flotation.

Washing

In this process, all the inked paper is put into a huge tank that separates the fibers using water and made into a form of slurry. Centrifugal screening is done to remove all kinds of waste material like staples. The water is then drained out via screens and stickies or adhesive particles are also removed during this screening process.

Flotation

In this process, the waste is turned into a slurry and all the pollutants removed. A variety of chemicals treat the slurry to create a froth and then air is blown into this pulp. The ink gets caught in the air bubbles and rise to the top of the pulp and this foam is then removed.

This treated pulp is then sent to the paper mills and the sludge is either landfilled or burned for fuel.